Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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March 5th, 2026
Image credit: ULA
The NASA Authorization Act of 2026 has been unanimously passed, legislation that authorizes a first permanent Moon base. The Act also rejects President Trump’s budget cuts of the space agency, and extends the International Space Station (ISS) while supporting future commercial space stations.
On March 4, S. 933, the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2025 — as amended by the Cruz-Cantwell substitute – was green-lighted.
The bipartisan legislation authorizes $24.7 billion for Fiscal Year 2026, and $25.3 billion for Fiscal Year 2027 for NASA, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year.
Image credit: NASA
Moon base
“This comprehensive bipartisan bill sets the stage for decades of continued U.S. leadership in outer space,” said Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Committee.
“For the first time, it authorizes NASA to establish a permanent Moon base as part of sustained American presence on the lunar surface and defines a transition process to end operations on the ISS and shift to commercial space stations on the leading edge of a commercially-driven low Earth orbit economy,” Cantwell said in a statement.
The lunar base would be capable of long-duration habitation, as well as robotic and human-tended industrial operations to advance science, technology and strategic interests.
Image credit: White House
Rejects Trump cuts
“Our bill also rejects the President’s budget request that would have gutted NASA’s ability to accomplish its important aeronautics research and technology development missions in partnership with many companies in my home state,” Cantwell stated, “and saves fully functioning space and Earth science missions from the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] chopping block.”
Current law allows NASA to operate the ISS until 2030. This provision in the new bill extends this date to September 30, 2032 to enable a safe and successful transition.
Image credit: NASA
Crew Rescue Capabilities
“Once a commercial space station has demonstrated for a full year that it has the capabilities sufficient to support scientific research, technology development, national laboratory functions and commercial activities previously conducted aboard the ISS, NASA will be authorized to transfer operations to this station and initiate procedures to deorbit the ISS,” explains a committee statement.
The authorization act requires NASA to evaluate existing and potential crew rescue capabilities for the return of astronauts from orbit and from the Moon in emergency and non-emergency scenarios.
The capability will provide additional safety to astronauts and will allow missions to continue if a crewmember needs to return to Earth unexpectedly.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
New space race
Ted Cruz, (R-Texas), Chairman of the Committee, issued a one pager focusing on the NASA Authorization Act of 2026, titled “Securing American Dominance in the New Space Race.
The lawmaker said the challenge is that America is in a space race with China.
“The United States is in an intensifying strategic space race with the People’s Republic of China, spanning Earth’s orbit, the Moon, and the broader expanse of deep space,” states Cruz. “Beijing is rapidly advancing its lunar ambitions, expanding its on-orbit capabilities, constructing supporting infrastructure beyond Earth, and promoting alternative governance frameworks such as the International Lunar Research Station [ILRS] – all with a clear objective,” he said.
- dominate the Moon
- control strategic terrain in space
- and write the rules of the 21st century
Congressional direction
“Space is not symbolic; it is strategic. Leadership in space underpins national security, economic strength, technological innovation, and global influence. If America hesitates, China will fill the void,” Cruz explains.
Image credit: NASA
Cruz states that NASA faces transition risks in low-Earth orbit (LEO), rising program costs, and supply chain vulnerabilities that could expose sensitive technology to foreign adversaries. “Without clear congressional direction, the United States risks losing momentum in lunar exploration, creating a gap in continuous American presence in orbit and weakening oversight of critical national programs,” he adds.
The solution
As highlighted by Cruz, the solution is the NASA Authorization Act of 2026.
- Directs NASA to establish a permanent Moon Base so we can get there before the Chinese.
- Requires NASA to begin soliciting for two commercial space stations immediately.
- Extends the International Space Station (ISS) to 2032 to avoid a gap in continuous human presence and capabilities in LEO, thus avoiding ceding leadership to China before commercial stations are ready.
- Reasserts American leadership in deep space by advancing the Artemis program as we prepare to return U.S. astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17, paving the way for the next generation of commercial services beyond Earth’s orbit.
- Protects U.S. national security by prohibiting unauthorized cooperation with China, requiring disclosure of foreign financial ties in NASA contracting, and directing comprehensive supply chain risk reviews
- Strengthens oversight of cost estimates and procurement to protect federal taxpayers.
- Modernizes NASA’s workforce and public-private partnerships to ensure America maintains the world’s most advanced aerospace industrial base.
Image credit: NASA
Strategic high ground
As for why all this matters, the Cruz one-paper says “the nation that leads in space will shape the global economy, define international norms, and secure the ultimate strategic high ground. China understands this and is moving rapidly to claim it.”
The NASA Authorization Act of 2026 “ensures that America – not China – leads the next era of exploration. It strengthens the U.S. presence from low-Earth orbit into deep space, protects sensitive technologies from adversaries, restores accountability, and positions the United States to lead from the Moon to Mars,” Cruz concludes.
The one-paper issued by Cruz can be found at:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/0505DF18-F8DC-42AB-BE14-8EC4C407FC13
Posted in 
This Soyuz rocket departed site 31 launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 27, 2025, lofting the Expedition 74 crew toward the International Space Station. The blastoff left behind a damaged launch pad.
Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Back on blastoff day late last year, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched a three person crew toward the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
But there was more “blast” to the November 27, 2025 liftoff than intended. That takeoff impacted the pad at Baikonur — Russia’s only active send-off site to support crewed liftoffs to the International Space Station (ISS).
Workers wrap up fixing launch pad 31 after significant Soyuz rocket damage left the complex unusable.
Image credit: Roscosmos
In a just-issued March 3 posting from Roscosmos, the word is that the damaged service cabin for launch pad 31 has been restored at Baikonur.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “Russia fixes launch pad damaged by Thanksgiving astronaut launch to the International Space Station” – at:
Image credit: Mars Guy/NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Guy investigates a new finding from the NASA Curiosity Mars rover – tiny parallel lines.
Curiosity uses an autonomous targeting system to look for interesting features for its laser-powered Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to shoot at. The rover recently targeted a spot that displays tiny parallel lines that don’t look natural.
“Spoiler alert: they’re not,” reports Mars Guy.
The Curiosity rover identified a strange, unnatural pattern while surveying boxwork structures on Mars. Investigations into these evenly spaced lines involve analyzing tool marks, geological formations, and wheel tracks.
Go to this video at:
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) has released an official announcement regarding this year’s planned activities.
In 2026, the country’s human space program will further advance two major missions: space station application and development, and manned lunar exploration.
“Aiming to achieve China’s first lunar landing before 2030,” the CMSEO stated, “the development and construction of various aspects of the manned lunar exploration program’s lunar landing phase are progressing steadily.”
Mengzhou spacecraft’s zero-altitude escape test.
Image credit: CMSA
Phased breakthroughs
CMSEO added that research and development of various aspects of the manned lunar exploration program “are progressing smoothly, achieving several phased breakthroughs.”
In a posting, the CMSEO underscored these elements:
- development of major flight products such as the Long March 10 carrier rocket,
- the Mengzhou manned spacecraft, and the Lunar Lander has proceeded smoothly.
- Large-scale tests have been completed, including the Mengzhou manned spacecraft’s zero-altitude escape, the Lunar Lander’s landing and takeoff, the Long March 10 carrier rocket’s tethered ignition, the Long March 10 carrier rocket system’s low-altitude demonstration and verification, and the Mengzhou manned spacecraft system’s maximum dynamic pressure escape flight.
Image credit: CCTV/CMSA
In addition, the CMSEO states that this year, efforts will be focused on advancing the construction of supporting facilities and equipment at the Wenchang Space Launch Site to support a piloted lunar landing mission.
China’s Tiangong space station as imaged by MAXAR satellite.
Image credit: MAXAR
One-year stay in space
In 2026, China is to launch two crewed spaceflight missions and one cargo spacecraft resupply mission.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), a Pakistani astronaut will participate in a short-duration spaceflight mission of the Chinese space station, serving as a payload specialist.
Last year there was signing of a cooperation agreement between China and Pakistan under which the Chinese government began to select and train a group of Pakistani astronauts, with one of them selected as the first foreign astronaut to enter the Chinese space station, CCTV adds.
Astronauts from Hong Kong and Macau are expected to carry out space station missions as early as this year.
One astronaut from the launch this year of the Shenzhou-23 crew will conduct a one-year stay in space experiment, the CMSEO states.
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
It was quite the day!
How best to troubleshoot NASA’s Moonshot program?
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed on February 27 a reconfigured plan for the Artemis program.
In sweeping “wait-a-minute” style, Isaacman spelled out a new plan that increases the cadence of launches and adds a step-by-step initiative of an Earth-orbit test flight before a lunar surface return.
The plan has outlined a needed “course correction,” one that cancels out the previous plan that was not a path to success.
Image credit: NASA
Resources
For details, go to these informative resources:
NASA Makes a “Course Correction” for the Artemis Program
By Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online:
https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/nasa-makes-a-course-correction-for-the-artemis-program/
NASA Adds Mission to Artemis Lunar Program, Updates Architecture
Following the rollback of the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft on Wednesday, Feb. 25, experts discussed the work ahead for the Artemis II test flight around the Moon and provided broader updates on the Artemis campaign.
NASA participants included:
Administrator Jared Isaacman
Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
For a replay of the video, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCbQtyUopOM
Lastly, go to this message from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman
“President Trump gave the world the Artemis Program, and NASA and our partners have the plan to deliver. We will standardize architecture where possible, add missions and accelerate flight rate, execute in an evolutionary way, and safely return American astronauts to the Moon, this time to stay.”
“This is the NASA that once changed the world.”
“This is the NASA that will do it again.”
https://x.com/i/status/2027408590902841414
Wait-a-Minute!
Image credit: Barbara David
Image credit: Mars Guy/NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter wildly exceeded every expectation for its performance. Initially intended to demonstrate whether an autonomous helicopter could fly on Mars, one of its navigation processors is now helping guide the NASA Perseverance Mars rover at Jezero Crater.
“Ingenuity’s surprising success on Mars led to an unexpected application,” explains Mars Guy. “Its navigation processor now helps Perseverance with location, using onboard processing to create overhead views.”
This Red Planet repurposing allows for longer drives of the rover, as explained in this episode of Mars Guy.
Go to: https://youtu.be/CkG4W7IKUr8
Damaged goods. The uncrewed Shenzhou-20 return capsule with compromised viewport parachuted to Earth after 270 days in orbit.
Image credit: CCTV
It has been billed as China’s first emergency operation in the country’s human spaceflight program.
Crew members of the Shenzhou-20 mission recently detailed their reactions in finding cracks on their return capsule viewport.
Ground team experts discuss Shenzhou-20 cracked window.
Image credit: China Media Group/China Central Television
Chen Dong, commander of the Shenzhou-20 crew, first noticed the damage to the window while conducting final checks on the return capsule. The believed culprit: a harmful hit by space debris striking the window.
For more details, go to my new Space.com story – “’Some of the cracks had penetrated through’: Chinese astronauts reveal new details about spacecraft that ‘stranded’ them in space last year” — at
Illustration of the scientific payloads mounted on Zhurong rover. The group picture of the rover (left) and the lander (right) was taken by the WiFi camera (Image Credit: the ChinaNational Space Administration (CNSA)). NaTeCam: Navigation and Terrain camera. RoMAG: Mars Rover Magnetometer. MSCam: Multispectral Camera. MSC-1: MarsClimate Station (Wind field and sound probe). MSC-2: Mars Climate Station (Air
temperature and pressure probe). MarSCoDe: Mars Surface Component Detector. RoPeR(CH1): Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (channel 1). RoPeR (CH2): Mars Rover
Penetrating Radar (channel 2).
Credit: Steve Yang Liu, et al.
China’s first Mars mission, Tianwen-1, landed in southern Utopia Planitia. The mission’s lander deployed the Zhurong rover following a soft landing on the Red Planet on May 14, 2021.
Zhurong was outfitted with a Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (RoPeR). Output from the ground penetrating gear indicates that a model incorporating dirty ice mixed with stones aligns most closely with RoPeR observations.
China’s Zhurong rover.
Credit: CNSA
That data reveals the presence of shallow subsurface ice, a roughly 23-foot (7 meters) thick layer of low-loss material sandwiched by two high-loss layers.
Analysis of the data is consistent with water ice, suggesting its possible presence at a depth of approximately 50 feet (15 meters), representing a large reservoir of buried volatile deposits in the planet’s past or even present today.
Topography around the Zhurong Rover, as observed by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL/U of A
The research work is led by Xindong Meng of the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences at Macau University of Science and Technology in Macau, China.
The Zhurong rover covered nearly 1.2 miles (2,000 meters) over 325 martian days before entering a dormant stage. Water ice is frequently found at middle and high latitudes on Mars, but its depth in low latitudes has remained unresolved. The China rover appears to have changed that situation.
China’s Zhurong rover wheels to the south, clearly shown in this image acquired by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Southern Utopia Planitia is a region that shows geological evidence of an active hydrological past, “making it an ideal site for the search for subsurface water ice,” Xindong and team members explain.
“The presence of a shallow subsurface ice-bearing layer at low-to-mid latitudes would represent a valuable and readily accessible resource for future human exploration,” they report in the journal, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
To access the paper – “Evidence of shallow subsurface ice at Tianwen-1 landing site” – go to:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X26000154?via%3Dihub
Chen Dong, commander of the Shenzhou-20 crew.
Image credit: China Media Group/China Central Television/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The crew of China’s Shenzhou-20 mission has shared details regarding that space debris-created window crack on their return craft.
Originally slated to return to Earth last November 5, the crew’s landing was postponed. The taikonuat trio used an alternative spacecraft to get back to the Earth safely.
Last week, in a detailed interview with China Media Group, Shenzhou-20 crew members elaborated on how they discovered the crack on the viewport one day before their planned return.
Emergency launch
Billed as the first emergency launch mission in China’s human spaceflight program, an uncrewed, cargo-loaded Shenzhou-22 spaceship was launched on November 25.
Uncrewed Shenzhou-22 loaded with supplies.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Shenzhou-22 docked with the front port of China’s Tiangong space station’s Tianhe core module.
Flying without a three-person crew aboard, the vessel carried a cargo of space food, medical supplies, fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as devices for treating the cracked window on the Shenzhou-20 spaceship.
Shenzhou-21 on-orbit crew monitors emergency Shenzhou-22 launch.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Naked eye finding
Chen Dong, commander of the crew, said he noticed the damage while conducting final checks on the return capsule.
“I was the one who went for the checks. I was through the capsule with the naked eye, when I spotted something like a triangular on the viewport,” Chen said. “My first thought was whether a small leaf had somehow stuck to the outside of the window. But then I quickly realized that couldn’t happen because we were in space. How could there possibly be a fallen leaf there?”
Chen pointed out the anomaly to his other two crew members, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie.
Image credit: China Media Group/China Central Television/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Ground team support
“I wasn’t really nervous, actually,” said Wang. “The outermost layer of the viewport is a protective layer, and inside it there are two pressure-bearing layers, and we are safe as long as the cabin pressure doesn’t change.”
Wang added that he knew the mission’s ground team would go through analysis and experiments to determine whether the crew could return safely and whether the crack affected the space traveler’s safety before making a final conclusion.
“So I wasn’t too worried,” said Wang.
Ground team experts discuss Shenzhou-20 cracked window.
Image credit: China Media Group/China Central Television/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Cracked window inspection tools
To determine exactly what was on the viewport, the crew used every piece of equipment available inside the space station to photograph and document the abnormal find on the viewport.
Tools used included a work pad, a work phone and a magnifying glass, finally confirming the crack by use of a 40-times microscope.
“It was a pen-shaped microscope. One end is the lens, connecting to a tablet — the device we use to inspect the extravehicular suits, especially to check whether there is any damage in the sealed areas,” said Chen, the Shenzhou-20 commander.
“We could see very clearly the small cracks [with the microscope]. Several were relatively long, and one was shorter, added Chen. “We could also see that some of the cracks had penetrated through.”
Incoming Shenzhou-20 capsule.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Astronaut-empty return capsule
The crew returned to Earth in a Shenzhou-21 craft while the damaged Shenzhou-20 return craft remained attached to the Chinese space station, all-in-all, spending a total of 270 days in orbit.
China’s first emergency operation in its human spaceflight program came to an end when the astronaut-empty Shenzhou-20 return capsule parachuted into the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on January 19.
Damaged goods. Recovery crews inspect astronaut-empty Shenzhou-20 capsule.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
The debris-hit capsule safely survived the re-entry process.
Go to the China Media Group/CCTV video at:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1570764594032409
Also, go to my Space.com story – “Chinese capsule damaged by space-junk strike returns to Earth (video)” – at:
Image credit: NASA
NASA is troubleshooting an Artemis II rocket upper stage issue, preparing to roll back the mammoth booster to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The problem was observed overnight Feb. 21 – an interrupted flow of helium to the Space Launch System’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS).
Built by Boeing and United Launch Alliance, the ICPS is a modified Delta Cryogenic Second Stage.
SLS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). Image credit: NASA
Artemis lunar missions – path forward
“Regardless of the potential fault, accessing and remediating any of these issues can only be performed in the VAB,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X. “We will begin preparations for rollback, and this will take the March launch window out of consideration.”
Isaacman said a more extensive briefing later this coming week should be expected, “as we outline the path forward, not just for Artemis II, but for subsequent missions, to ensure NASA meets the President’s vision to return to the Moon and, this time, to stay.”
